Oilfield area network communication system and method

• US 8,154,419 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services Incorporated (Halliburton Company)
• Original Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services Incorporated (Halliburton Company)
• Inventors: Daussin, Rory, Adams, Mark, Knight, Andy, Do, Tuan, Bibby, Brett, Oehler, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Gay, Jennifer H
• Assistant Examiner(s): MICHENER, BLAKE E
• Application Number:
  US11/956,839
• Publication Number:
  US 20090153354A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,579 Days
• Field of Search: 348/853.1
• US Class Current: 340/853.1
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 43/26 by forming crevices or fractures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition

Abstract

A method of conducting a well treatment service job. The method comprises assembling an oilfield communication network. The oilfield communication network comprises a plurality of mobile terminals distributed across a plurality of well sites and a plurality of base transceiver stations. Some of the mobile terminals are coupled to each other in wireless communication by the base transceiver stations. The method further comprises preparing a well for the well treatment service job, performing one or more well treatment steps, collecting one or more data parameters associated with the well treatment service job, and communicating the one or more data parameters from at least a first one of the mobile terminals via the oilfield communication network.

Claims

1. A method of servicing a well bore, comprising:

bringing into service a first mobile base transceiver station (BTS);

bringing into position proximate the well bore a first well bore servicing vehicle; and

bringing a plurality of mobile terminals into wireless communication with the first mobile BTS, wherein the wireless communication uses orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), wherein at least a first one of the mobile terminals communicates with at least a second one of the mobile terminals through the first mobile BTS, wherein the first mobile terminal is associated with the first well bore servicing vehicle, wherein a third one of the mobile terminals communicates according to a first traffic priority with the first mobile BTS using a first amount of redundant encoding, wherein a fourth one of the mobile terminals communicates according to a second traffic priority with the first mobile BTS using a second amount of redundant encoding, where the first amount of redundant encoding is different from the second amount of redundant encoding, and wherein the first traffic priority is different from the second traffic priority.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing a wellbore service selected from the group consisting of fracturing a reservoir via the well bore, an acidation stimulation treatment of a reservoir via the well bore, casing the well bore, cementing the well bore, and logging the well bore.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

bringing into service a second mobile BTS, wherein the second mobile BTS is coupled to the first mobile BTS; and

monitoring the well bore servicing vehicle from a remote terminal in wireless communication with the second mobile BTS, wherein the wireless communication of the remote terminal with the second mobile BTS uses OFDMA.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the second mobile BTS is not coupled to the first mobile BTS using a satellite communication link.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein bringing into service the first mobile BTS includes adjusting a height of a first antenna associated with the first mobile BTS and bringing into service the second mobile BTS includes adjusting a height of a second antenna associated with the second mobile BTS.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

analyzing a sensor input received by the first mobile terminal; and

adjusting control parameters of the well bore servicing based on analyzing the sensor input.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the sensor input is provided by the second mobile terminal, wherein the second mobile terminal is associated with a microseismic sensor, and wherein the second mobile terminal is located at least 200 meters away from the first mobile BTS.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile terminals communicate wirelessly with the first mobile BTS according to a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication protocol.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the mobile terminals communicate wirelessly with the first mobile BTS according to one of a 3.5 generation wireless communication technology and a 4 generation wireless communication technology.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein mobile terminals communicate with the first mobile BTS using licensed frequency radio spectrum.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the licensed frequency radio spectrum is in one of the frequency bands from about 2.5 GHz to about 2.7 GHz and from about 3.3 GHZ to about 3.9 GHz.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the mobile terminals is a multi-band wireless device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicatively coupling a field office or a real-time operations center to the first mobile BTS.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising wireless transmitting treatment data and equipment data to the field office or the real-time operations center.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting wirelessly from the first mobile BTS to the field office or the real-time operations center with a data transmission rate in the range from about 1 mbps to about 12 mbps.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting wirelessly from the first mobile BTS to the field office or the real-time operations center with a data transmission rate of about 10 mbps.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

performing a wellbore service on the well bore; and

coordinating a second wellbore service on a second well bore with the wellbore service performed on the well bore, wherein the field office or the real-time operations center performs at least part of the coordinating.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising adjusting control parameters of the second wellbore service on the second well bore based on the wellbore service performed on the well bore.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein coordinating comprises analyzing microseism data associated with the well bore to adjust the parameters of the second wellbore service.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mobile BTS comprises an antenna mounted to a drilling rig derrick, where the drilling rig derrick is positioned over the well bore.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mobile BTS provides a radio coverage radius of at least about 1600 meters.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising the first BTS scheduling the wireless communication of the mobile terminals with the first BTS.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the first BTS associating different priorities to the mobile terminals based on the identities of the mobile terminals.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first BTS allocates different numbers of subcarriers to the mobile terminals based on the different priorities of the mobile terminals.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the first BTS schedules the wireless communication of the mobile terminals with the first BTS based at least in part on the priorities of the mobile terminals.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicatively coupling the first mobile BTS to a common carrier BTS, wherein the common carrier BTS is coupled to a public switched telephone network.